[Plug] boot problem: LIL- (SuSE; + NT; possibly from Anti-Virus)

[druid@netreach.net]

I have NT and SuSE 5.3 Linux installed on the same machine
(one harddrive).  It boots using the NT loader, and has
worked routinely without the least problem.

Recently I wanted to boot my machine in Linux, and what
comes up is "LIL-" and then there's no response.
I haven't explicitly changed anything with the boot mechanism.
I believe the problem first arose when I began using Norton
Anti-Virus on the NT side (I have since disabled the NAV),
though NAV has never given any 'virus alerts'.

LILO is installed in my Linux root partition /dev/hda5,
and a copy of its boot sector is copied (using 'dd') where 
NT can find it (in c:\bootsect.lnx).

Regarding diagnosis of LILO, SuSE handbook says:
  'LIL-'  Data in the map file is invalid.  This can be due
        to a faulty disk geometry or to moving /boot/boot.b
        without reinstalling LILO.

Effort thusfar to repair:
 1) I boot Linux from my floppy (meanwhile also for
      general purposes);
 2) re-edited and verified /etc/lilo.conf
 3) run /sbin/lilo  (as root)
 4) recopied linux bootsector over to NT as c:\bootsect.lnx
     (even though it's irrevelant to the problem, I believe).
 5) then I try to reboot Linux (without floppy, of course)
      but get same result "LIL-"

I've checked various archives near endlessly for clues.
One person wrote debian-user@lists.debian.org (4/97) about 
'LIL-', and the reply was:

 "This sounds as if you need to reboot with a floppy, then 
  run lilo as root. The typical cause of this problem is 
  rebooting a machine after changing the kernel image but 
  before re-running lilo. It also happens regularly to one 
  of our student lab machines, which has a dodgy hard drive."

In my case, it sounds like /boot/boot.b may be messed up,
but I'm not even sure what all this is (ie, which components
are freshly remade when I re-run lilo, and such stuff).

Thanks ...

druid@netreach.net



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